Our journey through homeschooling…for the sake of our Beloved!

Last 6 weeks and resources.

We started formal home ed again after eid ul fitr and I really can’t believe 6 weeks have passed already! This week, we are on a much needed break. I have an assignment due on Thursday which I haven’t even started. Please make dua for me. I think I’m going to try and take a week’s break every 6 weeks or so inshaAllah. Although we are on a break, the learning doesn’t stop. I am keeping up Quran, Arabic and a few art projects for this week but everything will resume from next Monday inshaAllah.

I have received some emails and comments on the blog asking me about resources that I use so I thought I would write a post about resources we have been using for the last 6 weeks. Please note, the list below are the books we use. We use a lot of hands on resources to support what we’re currently doing in our bookwork.

QURAN

Basically, there are 30 of these for the entire Quran.

R now reads a few pages from Surah Baqarah daily, revises surahs she has already memorised and works on new hifdh. We recently bought the entire Quran in the green covered juz by juz. It is larger than the normal sized mushaf and as it is separated it into 30 juz, it is more manageable for smaller hands. The larger size has really made a difference for her reading alhamdulillah.

Another great resource which has really aided R in her memorisation and revision is the Penman Quran which was actually mine but I gave to her. She uses this when we’re in the car and its good because ayat can be repeated again and again when she is working on her hifdh.

HANDWRITING

She has also come to the end of this book. It introduces joined up handwriting. Alhamdulillah, this has given her a lot of confidence in her writing and when she does any independent writing, she joins up her letters. I have found that her handwriting is neater as a result of joining up. We only do a page of this a day (sometimes 2 pages) and subhanAllah, I have seen a huge difference in her handwriting just by doing a little every day. Once this is finished, we will be going on to some more handwriting books. I just think its all about practice practice practice.

SPELLING

We have been using this book for spelling. We do this once a week and R completes a spelling test of ten words and a dictation exercise where she has to write down sentences that I read to her.

COMPREHENSION

R has been using this book to complete comprehension exercises.

GRAMMAR

She is currently on lesson 61 of this grammar book. She really enjoys using this. We also use the above Jolly Phonics Grammar book for grammar as well.

CREATIVE WRITING

I try to encourage her to do as much creative writing as possible. So, she is always making cards for people, or illustrating a short story. But in terms of formal workbook, then we use:

MATH

We are using the Hungarian MEP programme which is just brilliant. R is making her way through Year 1. I’m not sure what to do as she is finding it really easy now. I think the fact that we do a little math every day has led to her finding the math at this level very easy. I was thinking that maybe I should just jump to Year 2, but not sure. Again, with math, its about doing a little every day. She does two lessons of this a day. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

We also signed up to http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/club/ and sometimes do the weekly challenges they send to my email inbox and then R sticks a sticker on a huge poster they send you as she completes a challenge.

QURAN CURRICULUM

As you know, this incorporates science, geo, history and art and I use a variety of resources for this.

READING

I read to R every day. At the moment it is normally a chapter from a book. R also reads a chapter to me every day. I try to give her books that are slightly above her level to push her a little bit.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION / OTHER

She goes to a kickboxing class for girls held in our local masjid. She also attends Muslim Beavers once a week. And we attend our beloved Thurs Home Ed group. I try to take her to the library once a week. She uses computer programmes such as educationcity.com and other sites. And is constantly making something with arts and crafts, engages in a lot of imaginative play either on her own (lol!) or with her brother. We try to visit home ed families and alhamdulillah she regularly sees a sister’s daughter who doesn’t live too far from us who is also home educated. She either comes to us or R goes to her for the morning or afternoon. Its nice because then I have some individual time with Z. Another sister has also started home educating who has a daughter R’s age and I think we might be seeing each other more regularly too inshaAllah.

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Jazzakillaah Khayr for sharing this in detail! Masha Allaah you are indeed doing a great job and May Allaah continue to give success. Aameen! One question, have you selected these books according to the UK national curriculum? What I mean is are you following the book list of your public schools over there or have you chosen according R’s standard?

Salaam,
I’d stick with the Y1 maths, even if it is easy.This allows more time and brain space for Quran and other higher priority matters. Count it as a blessing that you are getting smooth progess with maths.

Salaam sis,
just wanted your advice. how exactly did you make your daughter fluent in reading???? my ds1 can read and he knows key words, but his fluency is somewhat lacking. i’m not sure what to do to improve this? what books would you recommend?

Sister, you blog is amazing Mashallah. I just wanted to ask you one thing. Where did you buy the “Iqra kindergarten curriculum” in the UK? Can you give me the details? Which age is it suitable for? As i have got 8 and 5 yr old AH.
jazkallahu khair

Could you please clarify for me which books you use for Engliah Grammar.

Also, how R’s arabic lessons going? How do you work out what to cover in arabic. I ask because i want my children to learn arabic and a morocan sister comes to our house once a week to help the kids learn…i am abit unsure about how to go about it and make it fun at the same time.

Alhamdulillah, R’s arabic is going well mashaAllah. We use rosetta stone and al tilmeedh. At the moment, I am concentrating on reading to try and get her reading level in arabic up to where her reading level in English is. Al Tilmeedh is great too. x